Supreme Court Ruling causes problems for county election offices

Supreme Court Ruling causes problems for county election offices

A Pennsylvania state Supreme Court ruling is causing problems for county election offices across the state. Locally, it’s costing one county thousands of dollars. This, after the court ruled that a Republican candidate for Governor must be stricken off the ballot for the May primary. This ruling applies to counties across the state and locally, it’s costing Lancaster county $27,000 to re-print all of the ballots.

The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court held that the name of Governor Corbett’s GOP challenger Bob Guzzardi must be removed from the May primary ballot. The ruling cited his failure to file a statement of financial interests with the ethics commission was enough to take him off the ballot. The timing of the decision, leaves county election offices with a mess to cleanup.

In Lancaster County, the board of elections decided the best way for them to handle removing his name was to reprint the ballots.

“ Certainly the timing of it created a lot of issues for a lot counties, that should have been resolved earlier and money could have been saved, “ says Randall Wenger, Chief Clerk, Lancaster County Board of Elections

Wenger says they were able to absorb the cost of that $27,000 through savings in their printing budget for the year. But, that it was obviously an unexpected cost they had to incur.

And Dauphin County officials had to come up with a solution of their own. Director of the office of elections Jerry Feaser says they decided to cover up his name with a sticker. And that it was the most efficient and cost effective way to remove it.

“It required us to work a couple hours in preparation but to this date the machines are fully tested and sealed and ready to go for next week`s distribution,” says Feaser